Thursday, June 14, 2007

Just off Hollywood Blvd......

Well, no trip to Los Angeles would be complete without spending at least a day walking along Hollywood Boulevard.

They've cleaned it up a LOT so it doesn't look shabby the way that Times Square in New York used to!

Here's a stretch near the intersection of Highland, about 5-10 blocks from the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

This is the street with the Kodak Theater where they present the Academy Awards each year. Next door is the famous Graumann's Theater and across the street is the Roosevelt Hotel with the well known Cinegrill.

Oh, did you notice the pink colored stars embedded in the sidewalk? They are part of the Walk Of Fame. And, here is where it started to get strange.

We had good instructions from the internet and had parked the shiny black rented Mustang convertible (hope it has a top, we never put it up to check!) and took a great narrated walking tour in this area, including a stop at Kodak, Graumann's, the El Capitan where "Pirates" just opened, the Pig 'N Whistle for a beer( surprise: they had Boddingtons) and the Egyptian Theater next door.

Now we were on our own again and must have made a wrong turn because we were walking AWAY from all the noise and traffic and hustle and bustle of the crowds and street performers and people selling $5 Maps To The Star's Homes.

It was a quiet residential side street and up ahead I could see a seedy-looking bowling alley and a couple of neighborhood taverns .... and what looked like another pink star in the sidewalk.

But it was all by itself on the cracked and dirty pavement. But I went ahead and snapped a picture. This was a vacation trip after all so you take pictures of EVERYTHING.